Product Description
TECHNICAL CHARACTERISTICS
Format: 32 x 42 centimeters Pages: 210 Paper: 220 grams, specifically created at the Cartiere Miliani Fabriano with a particular composition enriched with vegetable fibers that reproduces the characteristics of antique paper. This process guarantees that the work will last for centuries. Binding: entirely sewn by hand and bound in leather with embossments and gold leaf insignias. Case: wooden sleeve with walnut finishings, leather trimmings, and embossments. Iconography: 169 illustrative plates of which four are in color.
CONTENTS
It is the first and only volume of largely scientific content regarding the history of the Venetian theater, authorized by the superintendence of the Fenice Theater itself. Fundamental and valuable unedited documents from the Historical Archives of the Theater, which miraculously escaped the destruction of the 1996 fire, are published here for the first time: unpublished letters by Giuseppe Verdi, reproductions of tickets and epochal playbills, newspaper reviews, and recollections of famous travelers, writers and intellectuals such as Rossini, Wagner, and Stendhal, who witnessed performances at the Fenice and made note of their emotions. The particularly rich display of pictures and illustrations that accompanies the texts comes from the Historical Archives of the Theater and from archives in the most important museums in the world (Museo Correr, Venice; Archivio di Stato, Venice; Civica Raccolta Stampe Bertarelli, Milan; Museo Teatrale della Scala, Milan; Biblioteca Civica, Treviso; Bibliothèque de l’Opéra, Paris; Metropolitan Museum, New York; Ermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg). Also included in this volume are project designs for the construction of the Theater, watercolors of the original scenography for premiere operas, sketches for costumes, and epochal prints. In addition there are essays by Lionello Puppi, Manlio Brusatin and Vittorio Mandelli, Eduardo Rescigno, Rita Zambon and Maria Ida Biggi. The anthological section of literary texts was compiled by Eileen Romano. AUTHORS Lionello Puppi, director of the department of the History of Art Criticism at the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice; Manlio Brusatin, professor of History of Drawing at the University Ca’ Foscari in Venice; Vittorio Mandelli, professor’s assistant for Manlio Brusatin; Eduardo Rescigno, professor of History of Music at the Conservatory of Como and the director of the series of opera libretti of the Ricordi publishing house; Rita Zambon, researcher and essayist; Maria Ida Biggi, professor of History of Scenography for the degree course in Conservation of Cultural Works at Ca’ Foscari; Eileen Romano, essayist.
INSTITUTIONS
This volume was published in collaboration with the superintendence of the Ente Lirico “La Fenice”. A portion of the proceeds from the sales of this volume will be donated to the Theater in order to contribute to its reconstruction and to the conservation of the Historical Archives. The superintendence of La Fenice guarantees a limited edition publication of this volume and certifies each contribution to the reconstruction with a personalized certificate for every purchaser. The mayor of Venice, Massimo Cacciari, has written the volume’s forward, thus giving important recognition to the cultural value of the work.